Apple of Knowledge Brown Bag: Laura Huth, "A Better Habitat for all Humanity: Gender Diversity in the Workplace and the Public Square", Ms. Huth is a serial social entrepreneur with dual leadership positions in two small Illinois-based companies she founded: do good Consulting and reCREATE Homes & Gardens. She's also been involved in the start up of several other community-focused, social change-driven endeavors including the Illinois Student Environmental Network and most currently, the Central Illinois Nonprofit Training Institute.

Lecture by: Bettina Chen, founder of Roominate,“Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovation “ Ms. Chen graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2010 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. She received her Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in March 2012. Bettina has conducted research on bionic contact lenses and worked as an electrical design engineer at Discera and KLA-Tencor. Bettina loves volunteering and working with kids, and is looking forward to getting kids as excited about engineering as she is! She is an ultimate frisbee enthusiast and plays competitively on a Bay Area mixed club team.

Lecture by: Lateefah Simon, "The Role of the Activist in Civil Rights Centered Policing" and "Bending the Arc of Justice: Community Development Strategies for Social Change in an Age of Mass Incarceration." Ms. Simon, Director of California’s Future Program at the Rosenberg Foundation is a tireless advocate and change agent for underserved populations in the US. She is part of the ‘new wave’ of civil rights activist leaders and community change-makers. Ms. Simon was also the youngest woman to ever receive the MacArthur “Genius” Grant Fellow, included on O Magazine’s first ever “Power List”, received a Remark-able Woman Award from Lifetime TV, and honored by the JFK Presidential Library with a Fenn Award.

2013-2014--Women, Gender, and the Law

Lecture by: Lilly Ledbetter, "Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond". A tireless advocate for fair pay, Ledbetter holds an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the CUNY School of Law and has been the recipient of countless national and international honoraria and awards. She is a featured speaker at colleges, universities, conferences, business, political and women’s groups around the country. January 29, 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was the first act of Congress signed by the new President Barack Obama. The law makes it easier for women who have experienced pay discrimination to fight back.

Lecture by: Bernice Sandler, "Chilly Climate for Women: How They are Often Treated Differently in Ways that No one Notices". Dr. Bernice R. Sandler is a Senior Scholar at the Women’s Research and Education Institute in Washington, DC, where she consults with institutions and others about achieving equity for women and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine. She formerly wrote a quarterly newsletter, About Women on Campus. She has given over 2500 presentations, has written more than 100 articles and is well-known for her expertise in women’s educational equity in general as well as in sexual harassment, the chilly classroom climate, and her knowledge of policies, programs and strategies concerning women on campus. She also serves as an expert witness in discrimination and sexual harassment cases. She played a major role in the development and passage of Title IX and other laws prohibiting sex discrimination in education, and has been associated with Title IX longer than any other person. The New York Times has referred to her as the “godmother of Title IX.”

Lecture by: Paula Monopoli, "Gender and Justice: Parity and the United States Supreme Court". Paula Monopoli is Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law where she founded the Women, Leadership & Equality Program in 2003. Professor Monopoli received her B.A, cum laude, from Yale College in 1980, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1983. Prior to entering academia, she practiced law at Hawkins, Delafield and Wood, Holland & Knight and Hill & Barlow.

Panel Discussion: Patricia Benassi and Athena Herman, "Civil Rights and Employment Law". Ms. Benassi began her legal career with the National Labor Relations Board where she worked from 1969-1980 in the Peoria office. During her tenure, she received an Outstanding Attorney Award and an Outstanding Supervisor Award. In 1980, she and her husband established the law firm of Benassi & Benassi, P.C., which has served central Illinois for the past 25 years in employment law, civil rights law, personal injury law, domestic relations law, as well as other areas of general law. Ms. Herman practices in the areas of employment discrimination law, general employment law, and civil rights law. Ms. Herman has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants in civil rights employment matters at all levels before the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the EEOC, the Illinois Human Rights Commission, in state trial and appellate courts, in federal district courts, and before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She has represented plaintiffs in individual, multi-plaintiff, and class action lawsuits.

Lecture by: President Joanne Glasser, "On Becoming a Leader: Women and the Legal Profession". Joanne K. Glasser was appointed the tenth president of Bradley University in 2007. She is also the first female president of the University, which was founded by pioneering philanthropist Lydia Moss Bradley in 1897. A dynamic and visionary leader with extensive experience in university administration, collaborative leadership, fundraising, and community development, President Glasser has made a significant impact by energizing students and faculty, leading a major advancement effort, and engaging alumni across the country.

2012-2013--Women in Science Series

Lecture by: Dr. Laura Grego, “Security in Space: What Is It and How do We Move Forward?”. Dr. Laura Grego focuses on the technology and policy implications of space weapons and is primarily concerned with safeguarding the secure and equitable use of space. She is the co-author of Securing the Skies and The Physics of Space Security, and her essay, “Security in Space” appeared in the Winter 2011-12 issue of Asian Perspective. She also is the author or co-author of more than 20 peer-reviewed, published papers on a range of topics.

Lecture by: Dr. Kate Clancy, “The Importance of Public Anthropology to the Battle for Women's Health.” Dr. Kate Clancy is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois. She studies the evolutionary medicine of women’s reproductive physiology, and blogs about her field, the evolution of human behavior and issues for women in science. Dr. Clancy blogs at “Scientific American”, http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-variation.

Lecture by: Celine Costeau, “On Being a Women in the Field”. Daughter of ocean explorer and filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau and granddaughter of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, she is featured in PBS’ successful television series, Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures. Fluent in three languages, Cousteau has collaborated with her father's Ocean Futures Society promoting the educational program, "Ambassadors of the Environment," throughout her travels.

Lecture by: Dr. Mary Wyer, “Women in Science: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion”. Dr. Mary Wyer is Associate Professor in Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies at North Carolina State University. She has worked with issues related to underrepresented groups in science and engineering since 1984. Her most recent project focuses on developing measures of students’ stereotypes of scientists and engineers. Dr. Wyer has published nine edited collections or special journal issues, three of these developed in collaboration with scientists/engineers and focusing on gender issues in STEM.

2011-2012--Human Trafficking Series

Film: The Whistleblower--A policewoman risks her job and her own safety to uncover and bring to light a wide-scale, child sex-slave and human-trafficking scandal in post-war Bosnia.

Lecture by: Norma Ramos, "The Modern-Day Tragedy of Human Trafficking"--A lecture on the history of human trafficking with an emphasis on why/how girls and women are central to modern-day slavery.

Film: Call & Response--This film examines the issue of modern-day slavery and how we should respond when called to.

Film: Holly--Fictional film about an American man living in Cambodia and his attempts to save a young Vietnamese girl from sex trafficking.

Film: Not for Sale (in collaboration with IAO)--The film both exposes the terrors of human trafficking and inspires hope through the stories and work of contemporary activists.

Workshop: John Donoghue:Informal discussion on how to become a modern day abolitionist.

Film: Biutiful (in collaboration with Reel to Real)--The story of Uxbal, a single father who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt, and mortality amid the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona.

Film: Demand--An excellent film which centers around investigative footage of sex traffickers, pimps, and johns. It tells the story of the "marketplace of exploitation" in four countries.

2010-2011--Women, Combat, and Citizenship Series:

Spring Lecture: “Serving in Silence," by Margarethe Cammermeyer--She spoke about her fight to win equality for gays and lesbians in the military

Film: "Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story"--The true story of a decorated officer’s legal challenge to her involuntary discharge from the Army after she admitted that she was gay

Spring Lecture: “The Army Needs Girls as Well as Generals," by Beth Bailey--Professor of History at Temple University, Bailey discussed the restructuring of the Army in 1973 and America's consequent confrontation with the legacies of civil rights and black power, the women’s movement, and gay rights.

Fall Lecture: “Mothers at War," by Laura Browder--Browder is a filmmaker and Professor of American Studies at Richmond University

Film: "To See If I’m Smiling"--Profiles of six Israeli women who served in the West Bank

Film: "Lioness"--The story of the first women in American history to be sent into direct ground combat in Iraq.

Davis, who once appeared on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List,” is now a professor of history of consciousness and feminist studies at the University of California Santa Cruz. She also works with several advocacy groups, including Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in support for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems.

2008-2009

Spring Lecture: Barbara Martinez Jitner

Filmmaker and human rights activist who was the real life hero of the film "Bordertown," starring Jennifer Lopez, about the murdered factory workers in Juarez, Mexico.

Fall Lecture: Eleanor Clift

Columnist, political commentator, author and reporter, she is a contributing editor for Newsweek and is a regular political panelist on The McLaughlin Group.

2007-2008

Spring Lecture: Jean Kilbourne

Internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising. Her films, slide lectures and television appearances have been seen by millions of people throughout the world.

2006-2007

Spring Lecture: Jane Smiley

Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres, as well as The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Moo, Horse Heaven, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, her first major work of non-fiction. She is also a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, Vogue, and Harper's.

Fall Lecture: Donna Brazile

Former campaign manager for Gore-Lieberman in 2000, the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign, senior political strategist, founder and Managing Director of Brazile and Associates, LLC, Chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, and regular contributor to O Magazine

The Guerilla Girls present feminist art criticism as a fun and educational experience. Their popular posters highlight issues of sexual discrimination in the art world.

Fall Lecture: "Gender Talk: A Lecture on the Struggle for Equality in African American Communities," by Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Guy-Sheftall is a founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies at Spelman College.

Fall Lecture: "Stuck Between the China Cabinet and the Cabinet Briefing: The Role of the Modern First Lady," by Stacy Cordery.

Cordery is the bibliographer for the National First Ladies' Library in Canton, Ohio, and author of Theodore Roosevelt: In the Vanguard of the Modern. She is an associate professor and chair of the Department of History of Monmouth College.

2003-2004

Spring Lecture: "Trafficking of Women and Children: Modern Day Slavery," by Michelle Clarke

Clarke is the co-director of the Protection Project

Spring Colloquium: "Women and War: A Panel Discussion"

With Dr. Alison Bailey, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Illinois State University, Dr. Julie Webber, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Illinois State University, and Dr. Jackie Hogan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Bradley University.

Ivins is a nationally syndicated columnist who often discusses issues of concern to women with humor and thoughtfulness.

2000-2001

Spring Lecture: Women and Islam, by Robin Wright

Wright is the senior diplomatic correspondent of the Los Angeles Times, specializing in the Middle East. She is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran and Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam.

1999-2000

Spring Lecture: Dorothy Allison

Allison is the best-selling author of the National Book Award Finalist: Bastard Out of Carolina, and other novels and stories focusing on women and survival in life.

1998-1999

Spring Lecture: "What Women Want," by Patricia Ireland

Ireland is the President of the National Organization for Women.

1997-1998

Spring Lecture: "The Shoulders We Stand On," by Louise Bernikow

Bernikow is the author of five books including The American Woman's Almanac: An Inspiring and Irreverent Women's History, and pioneer of Women's Studies.

Fall Lecture: "Women of Turkey," by Dr. Senel Aksu

Aksu is the Vice President of the International Council of Women, and has been recognized by the International Health Awareness Network for her distinguished and lifelong contribution to women's health education.

1996-1997

Spring Lecture: "Women and Mystery Writing," by Sara Paretsky

Paretsky is the author of the best-selling author of the V.I. Washawski murder series. She is also the recipient of the Silver Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association for her 1988 book Blood Shot.

1995-1996

Spring Lecture: "The F Word: A Fresh and Funny Look at Feminism"

This vaudevillian-style comedy revue looks at the history of feminism through humorous skits.

1994-1995

Spring Lecture: "Domestic Violence," Stacey Kabat

Kabat won the 1993 Best Documentary Academy Award for her shocking depiction of domestic violence in "Defending Our Lives."